How Gaza Kids Are Spending Their Vacation
No arts and crafts or nature hikes in summer camps for budding terrorists.
The increasing exploitation of children by Palestinian extremists is largely the result of the Islamization of the conflict with Israel. Beyond Gaza and the West Bank, there’s a long and dishonorable tradition of child exploitation by Islamic extremists. Ayatollah Khomeini used Iranian children in frontal assaults against the Iraqis during the 1980-88 war, while both al-Qaeda and the Taliban, when they’re not simply killing children, regularly use them as bombers, decoys, and human shields.
As the Islamists are fond of telling us, they love death more than we love life, and if their children aren’t as instinctively keen on the idea, well they’d better get used to it. The only thing Palestinian terrorist groups love more than dead Israelis is dead Palestinians; hence, the chilling mixture of grief and ecstasy so often seen at the funerals. And if they’re children then so much the better. Dead children are worth their weight in gold in propaganda terms in a conflict where the world’s media sides with those who are perceived to be suffering the most, regardless of the root causes of that suffering, and regardless of how much of that suffering is self-inflicted.
The politicians and diplomats can keep up the pretense of a peace process all they like, but as long as Gaza’s summer schools keep turning out the next generation of holy warriors, the prospects for a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are as bleak as ever. Lasting peace can only come when the cycle of father-to-son indoctrination and radicalization is broken, and a generation has grown up without violence. It’s been done elsewhere — it’s happening in Northern Ireland right now — but it’s hard to see Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terror groups giving up terrorism or stopping the systematic abuse of children. Their hostility towards Israel has little to do with land, borders, or other issues that can be negotiated over, and everything to do with a timeless, visceral hatred. And, as recent events have reminded the world, when the extremists aren’t fighting Israel they’re only too willing to fight, murder, and torture one another.
There are glimmers of hope. Haaretz carried the remarkable story of Joseph, (formerly Masab) Yousef, the son of West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, who has converted to Christianity and moved to the United States. He’s scathing about his father’s organization — particularly its indoctrination of children — and blames Islam for much of the Palestinians’ hardship. Yousef hopes to set up a Christian organization to promote peace in the Palestinian territories. He says: “I would like to teach the young people how to love and forgive, because that’s the only way the two nations can overcome the mistakes of the past and live in peace.”
Yousef’s attitude is inspiring, and his optimism commendable. But in a part of the world where religion, politics, and violence have become so densely entangled, Yousef will be fortunate if he isn’t murdered for apostasy before he’s able to spread his message of reconciliation. Sidelining the Islamic extremists and empowering the moderates would be an important step towards peace, but so far the Israeli government, the U.S. State Department, and the various other parties trying to revive the “peace process,” haven’t enjoyed much success in that area. So tight is the grip of the extremists, particularly in Gaza, and such is the deference afforded to the killers and kidnappers by much of the media, some aid organizations and human rights groups, and certain politicians (take a bow Jimmy Carter), that it’s hard to see where a breakthrough might come.
Golda Meir nailed it a long time ago when she said that peace would only come to the Middle East “when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us” — sentiments that are echoed by Joseph Yousef.
Sadly, the Palestinians appear to have made little progress in that regard. The self-pitying, the grievance mongering, and the culture of unending, glorious violence fostered by their leaders and allies suggest that many more generations of young Gazans are doomed to spend their summers playing with rocket launchers and aspiring to an early and violent death.
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Mike McNally blogs at Monkey Tennis Centre.
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19 Comments
1. SAF:I am afraid Yousef is just noise in the system. The Palestinians have been wrapping their kids in toy suicide bomber belts for well over a decade. It is unlikely this kind of mass indoctrination cannot be overcome by one individual out of millions. No doubt there are others but you rarely hear their voices.
There will never be peace in the middle east until one side wins. Since the Israelis can’t possibly win it will only end one way.
Aug 12, 2008 - 3:56 am 2. How Education Is The Key For Peace Between Israel And The Palestinians « The Home of Atilla:[...] example, a recent article in Pajamas Media titled ‘How Gaza Kids Are Spending Their Summer Vacation‘ is a great example of this ‘education’. When most people think of school [...]
Aug 12, 2008 - 5:37 am 3. Tom:SAF – since you seem to be ignorant of Jewish history, let me remind you – according to the Book, in the end they win.
Aug 12, 2008 - 6:42 am 4. blogengeezer:EPICENTER by Joel C Rosenberg tells the story very well and gives a ’spoiler’ about the ending.
Aug 12, 2008 - 7:36 am 5. Morton Doodslag:“The increasing exploitation of children by Palestinian extremists is largely the result of the Islamization of the conflict with Israel. “
While perhaps nominally factual with regards to the shocking exploitation of children, it is not accurate or true to suggest the “conflict with Israel” didn’t always have Islam (or Islamization if you prefer…) at its core. Today Jihad is particularly virulent, but that is mostly caused by the stunning influx of massive unearned loot into Muslim coffers due to oil, and the catastrophic explosion of Muslim populations due to foolish Westerners sharing food, money, and medical technology with them. They are our enemies — they always will be our enemies — Islam itself makes this so. The “conflict with Israel” is simply a new chapter in a very old Jihad, as are all the mass killings, mass intimidation, and widespread subversion of societies which Muslims have infiltrated over the last several decades.
We still are unwilling in the West to face the truth about Islam. To do so challenges the very notion that Muslims can or should live amongst us in the West, or that they should ever be permitted to practice their war doctrine of Islam in the West. Even those who profess to be on Israel’s or the West’s side often fail to realize these facts. Islam (or if you prefer “Islamization”) was ALWAYS at the heart of tthe “conflict with Israel”.
Just so, Islam will always be at the heart of any and all JIhad violence and the intolerance of Muslims against all “non-believers” for all time. Whether Muslims are strapping on bombs and mass murdering, raising money for their local Mosque, or simply subverting our society by exploiting our laws and openness to spread Islam among us — they are all working to replace our secular democracies with their hideous Islamic laws and norms — which will always include hatred of non-Muslims, and brazen intimidation to destroy our resistance to Islam itself. That is the nature of Islam — and we continue to pretend otherwise to our mortal endangerment.
Aug 12, 2008 - 12:29 pm 6. uburoisc:Morton has just hit a walk off grand-slam, nice to see someone is still swinging for the fences in a small-ball society.
Aug 12, 2008 - 12:35 pm 7. Canadian Neighbour:This is Yassir- the grandfather of terrorism- Arafat’s legacy. May he rot in hell. A toxic, psychotic society that is raised and nurtured on hatred, death, and destruction. Of course, the cowardly leadership will never offer themselves as “shahids” or martyrs but will gladly offer up children, brain-washed youth, and mentally retarded individuals.
As recently demonstrated in Gaza, the palestinians are incapable of creating a functioning, civilized society. But that have shown themselves repeatedly capable of nothing but destruction.
They are cursed society of pariahs and will never successfully create a nation with their present so-called leadership.
Aug 12, 2008 - 2:30 pm 8. Summer holiday fun in the sun; Gaza style « The Tizona Group:[...] Summer holiday fun in the sun; Gaza style August 13, 2008 — bingbing It’s that time of year again: school’s out, the kids are under your feet, and, much as you love the little brats, you find your patience being tested. Eventually, after clearing yet another dirty plate, or tripping over a discarded sneaker, you give them a well-deserved piece of your mind: “Why don’t you get out of the house and do something useful, like memorize the Koran or learn how to fire a shoulder-launched rocket?” [...]
Aug 13, 2008 - 3:16 am 9. LIBRA:Like most of the stories in the media, this is totally one sided. Why there is no mention of occupation and seige of Gaza? One can not justify violence of any kind and from anyone. And the quote form Gold Meir that Palestinians do not love their children is the worst kind of nonsense a person in her position could have said.
Aug 13, 2008 - 6:21 am 10. Keith Johnsen:Required reading for anyone from the West with anything to say about Israel or Palestine:
Aug 13, 2008 - 10:11 am 11. John Bibb:Edward Said and Norman Finklestein
Otherwise, you are blowing smoke in a hurricane.
Germany under Hitler had the Hitler Youth Group to indoctrinate / train the kids. He killed or imprisoned all opposition, and taught all in a totally militarized society to hate and kill all others. No peace was possible until almost all was destroyed and all people capable of fighting were dead, injured, or had all hope beaten out of them.
This is Deja Vu all over again–until Hamas and the PLO are destroyed militarily no peace is possible. In this situation there are no longer any innocent persons. My apologies to our State Department–they need a reality check. Think of 9/11/2001 as the logical outcome of this type of failed state’s existence–stop supporting them in any way.
Rocketman
Aug 13, 2008 - 11:48 am 12. toes192:Check your demographics, people. I worked in Jeddah 14+ years and I can tell you a fact of life. Arabs [read Muslims] hate Jews. There is no solution whatsoever and who is having babies? As Mark [says... correctly] Last man standing wins.
Aug 13, 2008 - 2:59 pm 13. tanstaafl:…and performing the high-stepping speed march that for some reason is standard practice for the militias of dictatorships.
“The salute” is also a biggie for terrorist kiddies in training.
Inside Hizballah (Time magazine, 2006)
Ayatollah Khomeini used Iranian children in frontal assaults against the Iraqis during the 1980-88 war…
The children were used to clear minefields. They wore plastic keys around their necks for entry into “heaven”.
I think Ahmadinejhad in his glorious “youth” was part of the Basiji, and he is a big promoter today, as well.
Aug 13, 2008 - 3:18 pm 14. tanstaafl:Arabs [read Muslims] hate Jews…
Both Semitic peoples with nearly indistinguishable DNA markers.
Link: Genetic Brothers
I guess it’s a form of self-hatred.
Aug 13, 2008 - 3:27 pm 15. BEKAROVBEYAMENU:Already, in distant years, the devastating Iraq/Iran conflict, and more recently the Kuwait invasion, highlighted the fact that it was neither the existence of Israel nor the world’s dependency on oil that was central to the Middle East unrest. The vested interests of tyrants dominate the Moslem political arena. It is they who finance the pitiful indoctrinated, terrorists, hoping that they will aid in warding off the march of democracy that wILL, surely, herald their eventual downfall.
Aug 14, 2008 - 9:34 am 16. PoliGazette » Kid’s Camp in Palestine:[...] This is what Palestinian children do in the summer. They go to ‘camps’ where they are taught how to be a good little martyr. They practice with fake rockets and are religiously indoctrinated. After a couple of weeks, these kids only care about killing Jews. [...]
Aug 14, 2008 - 10:34 am 17. OmegaPaladin:Libra and Keith,
The Palestinians scream for my death, and that of my friends and family. That makes them my enemy. I don’t care what happened to them, I will never sympathize for their worship of murder. When the Palestinians stop calling for my death and lauding the random murder of innocents, then we can talk about their grievances, and not a moment before.
Aug 15, 2008 - 1:46 am 18. tanstaafl:I hear you, Omega.
The agenda for Israel is spelled out in the Hamas Charter. Hamas exists primarily, even exclusively, for the destruction of Israel.
While what is being done to the children in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran… in the form of brainwashing & conditioning, compounds the felony.
It would seem the adults cannot manage their agenda without corrupting the minds of the young and vulnerable.
Aug 15, 2008 - 2:09 pm 19. BEKAROVBEYAMENU:The Palestinian children have been indoctrinated with hatred for over 60 years.
Aug 15, 2008 - 7:04 pmWhen deprived of gratification, in their struggle for dominance over Israel, they in their frustration will turn their anger on their less than enlightened leadrship. Benighted leaders usally land up on the gallows they set up for others.